My Account
A feature article on New Zealand in a Mercedes Benz company magazine in the late 1970s was to have a profound affect on the life of a young Dutch mechanic working in his home town of Eindhoven. Eddie Grooten read the article and was immediately captured by the scenic beauty of NZ with its space and relatively small population. Aged 27 and ready for an adventure, he applied for an emigration visa in January and landed in Auckland in May. Twenty-seven years later, Eddie is one of the Hibiscus Coast’s most successful businessmen, renowned for his generosity and more recently, a hole-in-one on the 15th green at the Gulf Harbour course. Here he reflects on an interesting life …
My family and friends thought I’d gone round the bend when they heard I was emigrating. I had a good life and they wondered why I would leave it. But I was looking for the right balance between what you need materially and what makes you happy. Besides, I was a free man. I knew I could always go back if things didn’t work out. As it is, it was the best decision I ever made. Erika followed six months later and we were married under a pohutukawa tree. NZ has been magnificent for both of us. It was five or six years before we made our first trip home and it only confirmed we had made the right decision.
Times were tough in post-war Holland but I had a very happy childhood. Eindhoven is the birthplace of Philips, one of the world’s largest electronics companies, and a lot of people moved there for work. My father managed the truck agency for Volvo and I was one of seven children. Interestingly, we are all married and none of us is divorced – I think it is a reflection of our upbringing and the effort our parents made.
My first taste of New Zealand life was a remote camping ground near Gisborne where I got a job through a contact from Eindhoven. It wasn’t to my taste at all – it was the 1980s but it seemed like people living there were still in the 1920s. Thankfully, I wasn’t there long before I came to Auckland to meet a Dutch couple, who were here on holiday. As luck would have it, they met Des and Jan Adams, from the Orewa Pharmacy, on the plane. When we headed north to have a look around the Bay of Islands, we stopped at the pharmacy and before we knew what was happening, Des had phoned Jan and said ‘I’m bringing people home for dinner and they’ll be staying the night’. We weren’t used to that sort of hospitality and generosity. Des and I got along right from the start, and I think I realised that this was where my luck was. He introduced me to a lot of people who became firm friends and business associates. People like John Smythe, of Warkworth, who is still my advisor and lawyer.
Initially, I stayed at Hatfields Beach, which was something pretty special for someone who had never lived by the sea before. When I heard the pie shop was for sale at Red Beach, it seemed ideal because it came with a three bedroomed-house. It had had four owners in two years because it was so dependent on the summer and weekend trade. For the next three years, I don’t think I even saw the beach. I’d start at 5am and work until nearly midnight, and when I wasn’t making pies I was out canvassing outlets that we could supply to. We had six years at Red Beach before moving to Foundry Road, where we bought John Wilson’s wholesale bakery. Eventually we bought the Red Beach property and its now our family home. Today, we employ 54 staff, make 7.5 million pies annually and distribute nationwide, and recently started some export trials to Canada, Japan, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. We now have the capacity to quadruple our production and our ultimate goal is to secure a European Union licence. We have distribution in England lined up but we have some major bureaucratic hurdles to clear first and there are huge costs. As far as I know, we will be the first NZ company to export a cooked product to the UK.
I’ve been very lucky in my business because I have had the support of amazing staff. It is very difficult to be outstanding in business if the staff and culture of a company aren’t right. We take a genuine interest in the personal growth and welfare of our team but in the end, all we can do is open the door for them – they decide their future. We’ve been shafted a few times but most people want to be happy and can see that we can all do well by working together. As I see it now, the pies are the engine that keep the company running, but it’s the social cohesion within the company that is really what it is all about. I’m quite passionate about making us a unique company in this regard.
In any business, there are always going to be the highs and lows, the times when you are going to run out of puff. I’m a great believer in courses and encourage people to attend them when they can. Eighteen months ago I did the ICEHOUSE course, through Auckland University, which I highly recommend. I believe if NZ companies want to stay competitive, they have to be prepared to invest in automation. We’re spending a lot on technology, bringing it in from overseas when we can’t find it locally. It doesn’t have to result in job losses, but it does mean a company can grow and meet high standards. We’ve just recently installed an x-ray machine that can detect any foreign bodies in the pies. Although our hygiene and systems are state-of-the-art, we can’t always rely on the systems that supply some of our raw materials. For instance, we once had a problem with minute traces of rusty steel and worked out it was coming from the salt. We’re not required to have an x-ray machine but if you’re passionate about being the best, then technology can help you achieve it.
We take a lot of pleasure at Dad’s Pies in being involved in the community. I probably receive three or four requests for sponsorship a week, and I doubt that there is a sports club on the Coast that hasn’t received assistance of some kind from us. But when it comes to kids raising sponsorship to go on trips, I tend to offer them work rather than a handout. We always have lots of jobs here and I think it’s better for the kids to learn to earn their money. If people have a good work ethic, then I think they are always welcome wherever they go. It’s something Erika and I have tried to instill in our own children – Mieke, Ben and Tom – as well as the confidence to not only have an opinion, but to voice that opinion and to do what they think is right.
Trekking mountains, racing cars and playing golf are some of the activities I’ve planned for my retirement. If there was anything I could change about myself, then I think I would like to be more disciplined with my morning exercise, although I feel fitter now than when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last year. If someone asked for advice, I would say ‘never deviate from your basic principles’. Afterall, you can’t make a good pie if your ingredients are second grade. Money can never be the driving force in a successful business – profit is only the result of doing an outstanding job.
Footnote: Dad’s Pies won a Gold Award in the 2007 Bakels New Zealand Supreme Pie Awards for commercial/wholesale – mince and cheese.
